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City planning director says 150 Oakland residents took part in meetings held to craft the plan

Topeka City Councilman John Campos II takes a photo of a potential code compliance issue in northeast Topeka's Oakland community, which is part of the council district he represents.

The migration patterns of children should be the main thing the city of Topeka looks at when it decides where to put sidewalks, says City Councilman John Campos II.

The migration patterns of children should be the main thing the city of Topeka looks at when it decides where to put sidewalks, says City Councilman John Campos II.

Campos said that is one reason he advocates reworking the proposed updated version of the city’s Oakland Neighborhood Plan, which the governing body is scheduled to consider approving Tuesday evening.

Adoption of the 83-page policy document would revise the city’s most recent neighborhood plan for northeast Topeka’s Oakland community, which the city council adopted in 2004.

The proposed new version recommends taking steps that include putting in six blocks worth of sidewalks at places where none exist in target areas for improvement.

But Campos, whose council district includes Oakland and North Topeka, advocates using the money instead to replace deteriorating sidewalks children use every day, particularly along east-west routes, such as N.E. Division.

Campos met Friday with a Topeka Capital-Journal reporter in Oakland, where he pointed out how sidewalks on the south side of Division were cracked and at times covered with mud.

He asked, “Why put in a sidewalk that doesn’t exist when you should focus on one that does exist, and is used a lot?”

Campos said the city’s planning department did a good job crafting the proposed plan, but that department can’t be expected to understand every nuance of the community.

Speaking before the council last week, city planning director Bill Fiander credited the plan to the 150 Oakland residents he said attended meetings held to seek input.

“It was probably the best participation we have had in any neighborhood plan that we have done,” Fiander said.

But Campos said he received calls from 65 constituents who weren’t able to attend those meetings, and he wanted to make sure their perspectives were shared too.

Campos also expressed concern that the proposed plan does nothing to address the systemic issue the city and the Oakland community face regarding a lack of access to affordable home ownership.

The percentage of owner-occupied single-family residences in Oakland fell to 59 percent in 2013 from 74 percent in 2003, according to the plan document.

Campos added that enforcement of city building and maintenance codes has increasingly become an issue in Oakland as homes formerly owned by elderly people, who died or left, have fallen into the hands of landlords who don’t take care of them.

The city last year chose Oakland to receive a two-year grant to improve housing and infrastructure in two designated target areas through the city’s Stages Of Resource Targeting program.

The city through SORT picks areas consisting of a few blocks each as priorities to receive about $1.4 million in each of two years to make housing and infrastructure improvements.

The proposed primary target area is located in the vicinity of Chase Middle School, 2250 N.E. State, and State Street Elementary School, 500 N.E. Sumner.

The proposed secondary area is located on either side of the north-south street of N.E. Wabash. It runs from Grant on the north to Laurent on the south.

Fiander said SORT primary and secondary target areas receive infrastructure improvements regarding curbs, sidewalks and alleys, with the city also making funding available to fix up existing homes.

Maps of the target areas, as well as the proposed updated neighborhood plan, can be found at http://bit.ly/1llJVhB.

Fiander said that after the city governing body approves an updated Oakland Neighborhood Plan containing recommendations, that body still needs later to approve funding for the target areas involved for them to receive it.

Design for the proposed SORT improvements would take place this year and construction next year, Fiander said.

City officials don’t expect every target area improvement suggested in the plan document to be carried out. That document acknowledges that if all the proposed improvements were made, the total cost would exceed available SORT funding by nearly $1.94 million.

The governing body will take up the proposed plan when it meets at 6 p.m. Tuesday in city council chambers at 214 S.E. 8th. Anyone who would like to speak may sign up by calling the city clerk’s office before 5 p.m. Tuesday at (785) 368-3940, or going to that office at City Hall, 215 S.E. 7th.

The city also plans to make improvements in addition to the SORT project work in the Oakland community. Fiander said design is set for this year and construction for next year on a separate, previously approved project to overlay the street and build streetscape features — including a gateway entry sign — on the roughly 10-block stretch of N.E. Seward Avenue between Branner and Sumner.